Digital Transformation in Manufacturing using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Technology has enabled digital transformation for many industries. The transformation impact has been more evident in services and service related firms. We have seen the evolution of new business models (example - Uber, Bitcoin) or new delivery and consumption channels (example - Netflix). Manufacturing firms have been typically lagging in the innovation, adoption and execution of digital transformation.

Microsoft provides cloud business apps like Dynamics 365, and Azure services to enable digital transformation like, Azure messaging service along with the Power Platform apps (Microsoft Flow, Power Apps and Power BI). They have largely been implemented and coupled with Dynamics 365 customer engagement - for Sales, Service and Marketing business applications. With the upcoming release wave 2, Fall 2019, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations will now be enabled to connect with Microsoft Flow, Power Apps and Power BI (the Power Platform) and Azure services. This will be the enabler and driving force in leading digital transformation in manufacturing firms using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

1. Integrations - In a multi-cloud and multi-app world it is essential for business apps to be able to talk and share information with each other. This requires a cloud based integration services capability like Azure messaging service. It also requires the ability to collect and store vast amount of data from multiple applications - a cloud data warehouse like Azure Data lake. The new release with data feeds feature will enable near real time export of data from Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations to both Azure messaging service and Azure Data lake.
2. Business events & Microsoft Flow - Business events is a great new feature that enables external systems to receive notifications from Dynamics 365 F&O. The business event can send data to Azure service bus or be a trigger for Microsoft flow. This opens new opportunities to drive an outside processes based on events happening within D365 F&O. Some of the use cases for business events are -

• Customer or Vendor on boarding - On boarding a new customer or vendor has been a manual business process - which may require getting the necessary business qualification details, evaluation and manager approval. When a customer or vendor is created a business event can be triggered that will enable the necessary flow actions for sending a questionnaire, verifying business information and triggering approvals.
• Sales Order or Purchase Order confirmation - When a Sales order is entered or a PO confirmed by vendor a business event is triggered. Various external processes needs to be enabled based on the Sales Order or Purchase Order entry and confirmations. This can be the picking and shipping process at an external warehouse to order planning and preparation for transportation, arrival and production. This can be enabled using Microsoft flow.
• Financial period end closing process automation - Every finance team follows a certain process for their quarterly or year end closing. The business events can be triggered on completion of a particular task and the team can be informed to start the next task using Microsoft flow. Also once the new period is opened the AP / AR team can be alerted to enable them to start entering data for the new period.

3. Power Apps and Common Data Service with F&O - The wave 2 release will enable dual write capability for Finance and Operations data to be in Common Data Service near real time. "This will allow businesses to exchange near real-time data seamlessly in a synchronous bidirectional fashion, beyond application boundaries" thus provide users a "One Dynamics 365" experience. This is to be released in phases with Phase-1 for Customers, Vendors and Products data and Phase-2 for the inventory and financial transactional data.

I can imagine the possibilities of creating power apps for F&O users and sharing the data with customer engagement. Add to it the ability to use PowerApps Control Framework (PCF) with F&O data would be amazingly useful for businesses.

4. AI insights- The above integration features now enabled to design and implement new AI capabilities. This now enables the Finance and Operations data to be integrated with data from other business apps in Azure Data lake and be able to get actionable AI insights to drive business transformation. Power BI data flows can now be enabled with the data in Azure data lake to generate insights using AI models. It will be possible to bring in the PowerBI custom visuals directly into Dynamics 365 F&O. In addition Azure IOT data can be coupled with Dynamics 365 F&O data to get more insights.

This all may still feel like a dream but it is becoming a reality and coming to your F&O apps very soon. The future of digital transformation for manufacturing and distribution firms using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is now turning bright and glamorous. It is great to be part of an exciting future. 

In my next D365 F&O blog I will write more about the new Supply Chain management capabilities in Wave 2 release of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. Till then do let me know how you plan to transform your manufacturing operations using the upcoming new features.

Mihir Shah @mihircrm

reference - Upcoming release wave 2 Finance and Operations features - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365-release-plan/2019wave2/dynamics365-finance-operations/